Our 2024 Growers, Grazers, Makers, and Bakers Grant Selections Are In!
River Market Community Co-op is proud to announce that our 2024 Growers, Grazers, Makers, and Bakers recipients are Living The Dream Farm and Stubborn Oak Farmstead! Living The Dream farm will be utilizing their funds for a solar-powered shed, and Stubborn Oak for seeds and seeding equipment. Get to know a little bit more about each farm below!
Living The Dream Farm
Khaiti and Ben have farmed and lived the dream together for 7 years on their resilient, biodiverse farm where nature is loved and supported alongside food production. Ben is originally from Springfield Illinois and came to Wisconsin as a farm intern, then ran farms around the country for years. He loves to cook and laugh and is a knowledgeable, practical & dedicated farmer. Khaiti is originally from South Dakota/Minnesota and bought her first wisconsin homestead in 2003, moving LTD to its current location in 2010. She worked at the River Market until 2011, to pursue farming fulltime. She loves raising the plant babies and food preservation of all sorts. Information about CSA shares offered by LTD their website www.livingthedreamfarm.com
Stubborn Oak Farmstead
Stubborn Oak Farmstead is a neurodivergent-led intergenerational farm raising vegetables and heritage pastured pigs in western Wisconsin. Our mission statement is “growing connections through food.” We see farmers as potential agents of social, cultural, and economic change. To those ends, we want to do more than just offer a product; we want to help people forge connections to dynamic living ingredients and the land that supports their- and our own- growth and vitality.
2024 will be our seventh year in production. We started out as Roosterhaven, a small farm raising vegetables and poultry. As we grow, we continue to refine our processes to align with our values of strengthening our local foodshed, combatting climate change, and sharing the joy of living in harmony with the land.
Our livestock and vegetable operations are managed by Sal and Joe. Sal has a background in natural resources with a special focus on botany, ecological restoration, and environmental justice. She has worked in local food systems from logistics to urban farming to educational programming. Joe’s background is in food service, and he ran a small café and catering company before switching his focus to raising the ingredients themselves. Sal’s mom Sue stewarded the land for almost three decades before the farm was founded. She takes care of much of our native plantings and prairie restoration efforts. Friends and volunteers are always welcome on the farm to collaborate and build community.
We grow diversified annual vegetables on a half-acre utilizing regenerative and organic practices. Weeds and pests are minimized with the use of cover crops, crop rotation, companion plants, and mulch. In 2024, all our vegetable beds will be fully converted to no-till production. After four years of raising pastured feeder pigs, in 2023 we invested in a small herd of breeding stock and now run a farrow-finish pastured heritage pork program featuring Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, a breed known for their exceptional foraging abilities. We are also dedicated to restoring native habitat around the farm by converting lawn and fallow spaces into diverse native plantings that support a multitude of insects, birds, herptiles, and other native creatures.
We sell our products at farmers’ markets, to home preservationists, and to a few small restaurants and retailers. Though we take great pleasure in growing and selling our high-quality products, the greatest satisfaction comes from being able to share the abundance we are surrounded with. As we continue to improve efficiencies around the farm, we can add enterprises that support our passion projects. In 2024 we will begin to offer on-farm classes and workshops which supports our mission of connecting people with their food and the land on which it is grown.
You’ll see an update on how these farms are progressing on their grant funding projects later this year when we visit them! Keep your eyes peeled on future newsletters and River Market social media posts for updates on our grant recipients.